Chicago Gameday 48 was this past weekend and it was damn good! Best one for me in a while. Between meals with dear friends, I played two games.

Genesys
Josh Rasey ran the generic version of FFG’s “narrative dice” engine for me, Willow Palecek, Jason Ambrose, Linnea, and Nikitas. It was a pretty straight-forward “wake up in a body bag and shoot your way to the scientists who messed with your memory” cyberpunk scenario, and I had a blast. Josh had a great mystery behind the whole thing that was fun to slowly uncover, and all the players got into the beer-n-pretzels spirit of the game (and I mean that has the highest compliment).

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Genesys system. I had signed up mostly to play a game with Josh, as I never seem to game with him at Gameday. Cyberpunk is not really my jam, and FFG’s custom dice always seemed like a scam to me. By the end of the game, I was half ready to head out to the store and buy the core book and some FFG dice.

Assembling the dice pools and then interpreting the results reminded me a bit of Cortex, and the basic building blocks of the PCs felt like d20 Modern — a winning combination for me. I also love the idea that positive and negative factors on a roll manifest as literal dice instead of modifiers to track and calculate. And passing Boost and whatever the bad dice are called to other PCs and NPCs was a great way to roll (literally) the results of one pool into another.

The only downside I saw was that the GM still had to roll dice as well. I feel like there has to be a way to keep all die rolls player-facing and just use Good/Bad dice to reflect whatever the GM is doing.

I also really loved the idea of Strain as both a type of damage and a resource that could be spent to take action. It reminded me a lot of END in Champions and I am a big fan of END in Champions.

So, yeah, I’m not going to buy any Edge of the Empire books anytime soon, but I would totally play Genesys again.

The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power

In the afternoon slot, Todd Nicholas ran SCUP (as it is called) for me, Willow, Shari Corey, and Tim Jensen. For those not familiar, this is a PbtA game focused on GoT-style intrigue that Todd Kickstarted recently.

We played a beast-controlling court sorcerer (me), a Dothraki warrior-princess (Willow), an emperor’s right-hand (Tim), and the Empress herself (Shari) in a Thundarr-like setting. The Emperor is getting old and weak, so, hey, it’s time to start jockeying for who gets to usurp him.

I had a great time and can say that the game totally delivers on what it claims on the tin. All of the sex, violence, and skullduggery felt just like an arc of GoT. The basic moves are very similar to what’s in ApWo, but then everything else builds on that foundation to drive towards heavy throne-on-throne action.

If you backed this, then look forward to good times; if you didn’t, then may the gods have mercy on your soul.

As you can tell, I had a great Gameday, probably the best that I’ve had in a few years. Not running anything and just showing up to play may have had something to do with this, and wonderful games with wonderful people certainly helped.

The only downside was that there was a non-Gameday table of Napoleonic wargamers wedged in the middle of our play space and merciful Zeus but were they a big bag of dicks. Old, loud, white dudes with no respect for personal space or personal volume. Out in the store, one of them even effectively started making fun of a guy for buying a copy of Mouse Guard. These hoary, crusted grognards were ridiculously privileged and ridiculously out of touch.

(Aside: there have been wargamers in our midst before — BattleTech and other, newer games — and I can tell you that they are oblivious dickheads 80% of the time. [The other 20% of the time they are the local all-women wargamer group, who are ridiculously courteous and helpful.] These guys were just particularly bad.)

I think unfortunately I didn’t realize that anyone was bothered but me until it was too late.

Is there a wargamer equivalent of manspreading? Because they spread their shit and themselves all over the fucking place every time. They’ll get really adamant about claiming their space (“Our table, man”), and then will fill all the surrounding tables with their bags and mini cases. Like, we had a tiny table we used for the sign-in sheets and a poster for one of the GM’s upcoming Kickstarter, and they literally piled their shit on top of all of it. And then there’s the time some BattleTech dudes literally took one of the clipboards we use for the sign-in sheets to use for some tracking sheet. “Huh, this obviously doesn’t belong to me. I’ll just take it I guess.”

< ![CDATA[Paul Beakley Yeah, I was just in contact with the store owner.
I think unfortunately I didn't realize that anyone was bothered but me until it was too late.
Is there a wargamer equivalent of manspreading? Because they spread their shit and themselves all over the fucking place every time. They'll get really adamant about claiming their space ("Our table, man"), and then will fill all the surrounding tables with their bags and mini cases. Like, we had a tiny table we used for the sign-in sheets and a poster for one of the GM's upcoming Kickstarter, and they literally piled their shit on top of all of it. And then there's the time some BattleTech dudes literally took one of the clipboards we use for the sign-in sheets to use for some tracking sheet. "Huh, this obviously doesn't belong to me. I'll just take it I guess."]]>

I think it’s a more generalized thing that dudes do when they gather in large groups. Exact same thing happened with a bunch of motorcycle club dudes were having a convocation alongside us at New Mexicon. Absolutely no interest in keeping to their own space, or even a recognition that we needed to share the space.

Personally I think it’s aggressive and deliberate and not, like, a social faux pas or oversight or whatever. It probably can only be met with a similar response, unfortunately, unless the shop owner can be reasonable and chill and let them know they’re being dicks.

< ![CDATA[I think it's a more generalized thing that dudes do when they gather in large groups. Exact same thing happened with a bunch of motorcycle club dudes were having a convocation alongside us at New Mexicon. Absolutely no interest in keeping to their own space, or even a recognition that we needed to share the space.
Personally I think it's aggressive and deliberate and not, like, a social faux pas or oversight or whatever. It probably can only be met with a similar response, unfortunately, unless the shop owner can be reasonable and chill and let them know they're being dicks.]]>

I’ve been keen on the rich dice of the FFG system for a long time, and mostly put off by the expense of their dang rulebooks, and the way they sell them at 3x the size they would need to be if they didn’t reprint the core rules in every setting book.

< ![CDATA[I've been keen on the rich dice of the FFG system for a long time, and mostly put off by the expense of their dang rulebooks, and the way they sell them at 3x the size they would need to be if they didn't reprint the core rules in every setting book.]]>

Were those the same guys who got upset that people at the back table wouldn’t open the back door when they knocked?

I’ll be honest, I had mixed feelings about that altercation. I get that it’s a minor interruption to open the door, but I feel like if you’re at the back table, that’s just basic courtesy. The gm was adamant about not doing so, and I wonder if that set things off on the wrong foot for everybody.

< ![CDATA[Were those the same guys who got upset that people at the back table wouldn't open the back door when they knocked?
I'll be honest, I had mixed feelings about that altercation. I get that it's a minor interruption to open the door, but I feel like if you're at the back table, that's just basic courtesy. The gm was adamant about not doing so, and I wonder if that set things off on the wrong foot for everybody.
Or maybe the wargamers were already being jerks, I dunno.]]>

Dave Michalak I did not witness the altercation, but I think it’s unreasonable to assume that patrons will know to open a business’s locked door. Plus, these guys are store regulars, so they should know to make accommodations for the self-locking door — have someone wait at the back, or know to come around front, etc.

Mainly, though, there is no justification whatsoever for them yelling at that table.

< ![CDATA[Dave Michalak I did not witness the altercation, but I think it's unreasonable to assume that patrons will know to open a business's locked door. Plus, these guys are store regulars, so they should know to make accommodations for the self-locking door — have someone wait at the back, or know to come around front, etc.
Mainly, though, there is no justification whatsoever for them yelling at that table.]]>

For the record, there was no yelling that I heard, just terse conversation.

I can say that as a longtime semi-regular myself, the usual accommodation for the self locking door is, you knock and hope someone lets you in, and if you hear someone knocking, you let them in. But that’s just my experience. shrug

It sounds like they were an issue totally separate from that single incident I overheard, though. I apologize if it sounded like I was defending them, that was not my intent.

< ![CDATA[For the record, there was no yelling that I heard, just terse conversation.
I can say that as a longtime semi-regular myself, the usual accommodation for the self locking door is, you knock and hope someone lets you in, and if you hear someone knocking, you let them in. But that's just my experience. shrug
It sounds like they were an issue totally separate from that single incident I overheard, though. I apologize if it sounded like I was defending them, that was not my intent.]]>